Create Your Own Fundraising Cookbook
Multi-contributor cookbooks can be a great fund raising tool. Here are a few tips for putting one together while keeping the headaches to a minimum.
Establishing a Theme. Whatever your organization is - even if you are creating cookbooks as a sort of home business venture — you will do well to put your cookbook together around a theme. The theme you choose doesn’t have to be food-related necessarily (meaning it doesn’t have to be centered around a particular type of cuisine), though if you are putting together a large cookbook, and you have enough contributors, you may be able to organize the book into sections that pertain to certain regional foods. If you are making a smaller book, you can choose, say, desserts as your subject matter and go from there.
Another idea for a theme would be to simply gather and put in one place the favorite family recipes of a certain group. For instance, you could gather material from the significant others of your state legislators and call it something like “What’s Cooking On Capital Hill.” The only limits to your theme are your imagination and the willingness of your contributors.
Who Will Contribute?
The more contributors you have, the better. The most important thing to keep in mind is that, in most cases, your contributors will also be your best customers. In many cases they will be so pleased to see their recipes in print that they will buy several copies of the cookbook to hand out to family and friends. A good rule of thumb is to give each contributor one free copy of the book, and charge the full -or perhaps only slightly reduced - price for any other copies of the book they want. You may hear a grumble or two, but all you need to do is to gently remind them that the purpose of the book is to raise money for a good cause.
Gathering Your Material.
Deciding whose recipes you’d like to include is not even half the battle, as you can well imagine. The next step is contacting your potential contributors, sett talking them into giving you’re their time and energy, and most difficult of all, convincing them to follow through in a timely manner. One of the best ways to do this without it taking a rather daunting amount of time is, of course, via email. For initial contact, however, it may be best to pick up the phone and have a chat with your prospective contributors. They will get a better sense of what it is you are trying to do, and will remember the conversation better. After that initial conversation, simply send gentle email reminders (no more than weekly) as your deadline approaches.
Making Sure The Recipes Are Complete.
You do not, of course, have to cook every recipe that you gather, but you do need to read them closely and carefully, and ask your contributors for clarifications if need be. If it’s unclear, for example, whether a pot should be covered or uncovered, make a quick call to find out before committing the recipe to print.
Choosing the Right Binding Style.
The only rules here are durability and functionality. Make sure that you choose a binding style that allows the book to lie flat so cooks can read it while their hands are full. Plastic comb and spiral coil binding are two great choices for this.
If you are interested in more information about how the right Document Binding Style, can help you create a great cookbook, you might want to visit MyBinding.com. They carry a full line of Binding Accessories, of all styles, types and capabilities.










